SEXUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE: Organizational Control, Sexual Harassment, and the Pursuit of Pleasure

Abstract

Flirting, bantering, and other sexual interactions are commonplace in work organizations. Not all of these interactions constitute harassment or assault; consensual sexual relationships, defined as those reflecting positive and autonomous expressions of workers' sexual desire, are also prevalent in the workplace and are the focus of this paper. We begin by reviewing research on the distinction between sexual harassment and sexual consent. Next we examine popular and business literatures on office romance. Finally we discuss sociological research on consensual sexual relationships, including research on mate selection, organizational policy, and workplace culture. We argue that sexual behaviors must be understood in context, as an interplay between organizational control and individual agency.

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“That’s creepy, dude": Disciplining desire and making masculine selves in the sexual moment

“…Sociologists (Dunn 1999;Smith and Morra 1994;Uggen and Blackstone 2004;Seal and Ehrhardt 2003;Emerson, Ferris, and Gardner 1998;Williams, Giuffre, and Dellinger 1999;Armstrong, Gleckman-Krut, and Johnson 2018) Many forms of what comes to be identified as stalking grow out of glitches and discontinuities in two very common and normal relationship processes-coming together and forming new relationships on the one hand, and dissolving and getting out of existing relationships on the other. In this way the processes and experience of being stalked are intricately linked to normal, everyday practices for establishing, advancing, and ending relationships.…”

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